Wednesday, 12 February 2025

Christmas in Bloom

The past couple of Christmases, I paid for my daughter's AMA (Alberta Motor Association) membership as her Christmas gift. It's useful, it's practical and it doesn't take up any room, other than a card in her wallet. But I also wanted her to have something to open on Christmas morning. In addition to the usual Christmas stocking stuff, I also chose to make her a Christmas snuggle quilt. 

This is one of the few quilts I have made in which all of the fabrics in the quilt top are from the same fabric line. And it's lovely fabric. It features amyrillises (I had to google that to find out what the plural was), but it also has snowflakes and Christmas baubles. 
Choosing the thread wasn't a big deal as I just opted for the Affinity thread Christmas blend that I have in my stash. I love variegated thread, like I love variegated yarn. But for the most part, I find neither is worth the added expense, because both are more expensive than solids. With the yarn, I find that the pattern of the stitches - whether knit or crochet - disappears in the colour variegations. Especially when the variegations are more pronounced, like in the Mistletoe and Lace afghan or the Lace Enchantment afghan. In both of those, I really can't even see the actual design of the afghans because the colours are shouting so loud. When it comes to thread,, it's almost the opposite. The colour variations basically disappear against a varied print quilt top. Nevertheless, I own the thread, so I might as well use it. 
Picking a pantograph for the quilting was a little more challenging. If I had an amaryllis pantograph, I likely would have chosen it. I considered the Easter Lily pantograph, because amaryllises do look similar to lilies, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. I've seen a Christmas ornaments panotgraph that I likely would have used if I owned it. None of my other Christmas pantographs seemed suitable. except for Snow Winds. As I've mentioned, I've probably used that pantograph more than any of my others. So, Snow Winds it was. 
I used a red with white snowflake print fleece/minky backing, which I have used before in both Boxes and Bows and Christmas Sweaters
The quilt pattern is Allure from Fabric Cafe's book, "The Magic of 3-Yard Quilts". 

On the home front, I finally made it outside today. It was -21°C, with a wind chill of -31. But Peter wanted to go to Walmart and I was getting cabin fever from being inside so long. So I plugged in the block heater on the truck about an hour and a half before I was planning to leave, and it started fine. And when I got home, since I was already bundled up, I dumped the compost and took a few small bags of trash to the dumpster. Then I was happy to come back inside. I did plug the block heater back in again. Since this cold weather is expected to last for at least another week, I figured it's better to leave it plugged in and have the truck ready in case I need it. 

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

Dancing Snowflakes

 It's been so cold lately that this morning I was reminded of this limerick:

There was a young man from Quebec
Who was buried in snow to his neck.
When asked, "Are you friz?"
He replied, "Yes, I is,
"But we don't call this cold in Quebec."

Though personally, I would change it to Alberta, if it only rhymed with something appropriate. I don't know if Quebec gets the extreme cold temperatures that we do. Currently, at around 8:45 a.m., it's -20°C (about -4°F), but the forecast is for it to go down to -32°C (about -25.6°F) overnight. Fortunately, it's not too windy, so there's no significant wind chill factor. And at least it's not in the -40s. We do get those temperatures occasionally. 
I have been hunkering down at home, only venturing out once recently when Peter (my nephew that lives nearby) asked if I could take him to Walmart. Peter moved here from Victoria, BC, which is basically Canada's banana belt, about a year ago. He didn't even own a proper winter coat and boots because the winters are so mild there. And he doesn't have a driver's licence, because he didn't really need it in a big city with a good transit system. He's not afraid to walk - even in this frigid weather - but Walmart is a little far, especially if you have to turn around and carry your purchases home. Including an 18 kg (about 40 lb) box of kitty litter. 
My compost buckets are full, almost to overflowing, but I've been reluctant to get all bundled up just to carry them out to the composter. If the temperature were above -10, I would just throw on my boots and run them out there, without worrying about coat, toque, gloves... 
We've also had a little bit more snow and ideally, I would go out and clear that away. But I'm still debating on whether it's enough to justify braving the cold. It's not enough to run the snow blower. And my snow removal guy has not been very reliable lately...
Anyway, I'm still catching up on blogging about my Christmas projects. When I officially retired this past September, I got my vacation pay paid out, so I asked my daughter about getting my grandson a new bed. I bought him his first bed from Ikea years ago once he was out of his crib. It was a great bed for a young child as it was low to the floor, with a not very thick mattress. But it was no longer a great bed for a child of his age. So, I figured that this was likely the last time I would receive a relatively substantial sum of money all at once, now that I was retired, and offered to buy him a new bed for his Christmas gift. Of course he got it as soon as I bought it in the fall. But I still wanted him to have something to open on Christmas morning. Amongst his other gifts from Grandma, I made him this quilt, which I called Dancing Snowflakes. 

It's uniquely coloured for a Christmas quilt, and the fabric isn't necessarily specifically Christmas. The black and grey fabrics are snowflakes and the beige is reindeer and ivy. (I apologize for the fuzziness of the picture. It seems that the resolution on my camera is inconsistent). It was one of those situations where I wasn't sure if I was going to like the fabric combination. But I do. I love it. I find it very classy, and if this quilt hadn't been going to my grandson, I would have been tempted to keep it. 
The backing is a blue snowflake fleece/minky, which I've used before as backing on Let It Snow. It's deeper and softer than most minky fabrics I've used, and is oh, so cuddly, which my grandson loves. Even though he doesn't generally get cold at night, he loves the fleece sheets that I bought him. He just loves the snuggle factor. 
I used the Snow Winds pantograph for the quilting. As someone who owns 174 pantographs (with 8 more on the way), many of them have yet to be used and of the ones I have used, most have only been used once or twice. Snow Winds, on the other hand, I have used multiple times. I guess because it works well with so many Christmas and winter themed quilts. I only own two snowflake pantographs, the other one being Deb's Snowflake Meander. The quilting is a little more dense in that one, so not necessarily one I want to use with a minky backing. Plus it's 15.5" wide, which is really pushing the limits of the throat space on my Amara. I think I've only used that one once. I prefer to work with pantographs around 12" wide. 
The thread I used for the quilting was this Aurilux, which is a polyester thread that used to be made by Aurifil. I'm not sure why they discontinued it, but I bought quite a few mini cones in various colours when a thread vendor was selling it out. It's beautiful thread, but can be horrible to work with. It wasn't till I discovered that I needed to keep the quilt fairly loose on the frame when using variegated thread that I was able to use it successfully on quilts. And I still approach using it with trepidation. 
The pattern for this quilt is Button Box, from Fabric Cafe's book, "Quilts in a Jiffy". Have I mentioned how much I love 3-yard quilts? They are generally quick and easy and are the perfect size for snuggle quilts. 
And, of course, if you've been following my blog, you also know that I love to challenge myself with new quilting techniques, complex quilt blocks, etc., not just quick and simple. But right now, I should exercise. Normally, I try to do it before breakfast, but I got up late and I still want to fit it in...

Monday, 10 February 2025

Eccentric

 

I'm trying to get caught up again on posting about my latest projects. Since I have decided to spend less time on Facebook, that should give me more time for more important things. And not so important, like my blog.
Why am I spending less time on Facebook? First, I found that I was wasting a lot of time scrolling through Facebook. While I enjoy keeping tabs on my friends, most of this time is really non-productive. And lately, I have been seeing increasing posts from pages that I am not following. What are they doing in my feed? I don't really want to follow a police station in New Jersey, or other ridiculous and irrelevant pages. It's really getting annoying when there seems to be more of them than posts from the people/pages/groups that I do want to hear from. And the ads and the reels - some of which are not just annoying, they are offensive. And stupid. And then there are repetitive posts about the current political situation, which get stressful after awhile. And the puzzling comments that I sometimes get when sharing something in a group. The most recent one that I found was when I shared this quilt in a Facebook quilting group: 
One of the commenters said, "It's nice, but you didn't follow the instructions." And then something about "It's fine if that's what you want". What?!? I really have no idea what she meant by that, or why she even felt the need to comment. Did I need her permission to do it my way? The only thing I can figure out is that I put the dark fabric where the light fabric was in the pattern project. 
Wonderland from Fabric Cafe's "Make It Christmas"
But that is NOT not following the instructions. That's a design choice. Or maybe it was the fact that I didn't use Christmas fabric, which is also a design choice. Or that I used fabric 3 instead of fabric 2 for the first border... And that's not the first time I've gotten a backhanded compliment and other puzzling and annoying comments on my posts. That's one of the reasons I have reduced the amount of things I share in groups. But now I think I will just stop altogether and only share my projects with my Facebook friends. 
But back to the quilt this post is supposed to be about. I have both a niece and a nephew that live locally. They are cousins, not siblings. For my niece's birthday, I gave her the Christmas Sweaters quilt this past year, which had a minky backing. When my nephew saw it, he informed me that the next time I make him a quilt, "and I know you will because you have so much fabric, I want it to have that soft, cuddly backing." So that's what he got for Christmas. Peter likes loud colours, so that's what I pulled from my stash. The pattern is called Twinkles, and it's found in the book Make It Christmas. However, because the main block is the Eccentric Star, and because it is a rather eccentric quilt, I just called it Eccentric. 
I used Flying Paisley for the quilt design. 
This picture is funny, and illustrates the fact that even experienced quilters make mistakes. Fortunately, I caught it before sewing it into the quilt like this. 

We Will Remember Them

 

My father was a veteran of World War II, as were two of my uncles (one maternal and one paternal). Both of my grandfathers were veterans of World War I. So, Remembrance Day is significant for me. In choosing what to make for a November wallhanging, I wanted it to be special. When I saw this particular panel from the Stonehenge Oh Canada line, I felt that they had really "knocked it out of the park". I have liked most of the various Oh Canada lines, but this particular panel really spoke to my heart. 
I made it simple. It didn't really need much added to it because the panel itself speaks volumes. So, I just added some solid black and some of the poppy ombre fabric from the same line. 

It was quilted with the Poppy Feathers pantograph. 
I've kind of gotten sidetracked from my Tortoise Projects, so not really any progress to report there. 
I have completed 2 squares from block 2 of An Alchemy of Stitches. And I'm sorry, not sorry, but those loops on the second square make me think of teats on an udder. My daughter had the same reaction when I showed this square to her. 
I decided to start the Farmer's Wife quilt, since I got the book for my last birthday, using scraps from my stash. These are only 6" blocks, so some of the pieces are quite small. 
There is a website in the book where the templates for the blocks can be downloaded. The annoying thing, however, is that, no matter how small the template, there is only 1 per page. Not only that, but there is a template for every piece. And not every piece needs a template. Many of them are very easily measured with a ruler. And I'd much rather measure with a ruler than fuss with templates. 
I really didn't need to start another project, so I think I will be relegating this to the UFO pile and take it up later when I have more urgent projects finished. 

Sunday, 9 February 2025

Northern Star

 

I purchase a lot of quilting books in thrift stores or on clearance wherever I can find them. One time I found that my local quilt shop was selling out a bunch of books, and I think they were only $1.00 each. So I rummaged through them and picked the ones I figured I was most likely to actually use. Among my haul was the Northern Star Quilt book from Quilt in a Day. There was only the one pattern in the book, though in different sizes, but at $1, that's still a lot cheaper than buying a single pattern. 
I was however, making this one for my newest great niece, so reduced the size and had to recalculate all of the fabric amounts and cutting directions. 
When I looked at the picture in the book, it looked like just a bunch of random unrelated fabrics were used in the quilt top. So, that's what I did. I chose mostly random fabrics that I felt would work in a girl's quilt. Aside from the black and the white, which are both the same print, they are entirely unrelated fabrics. And personally, I think it turned out beautiful. 
And I think that life can be like that, in at least a couple of ways. Sometimes, when a group of people get together, they may appear to have little in common. But when they work together towards a common goal, the results can be beautiful. On the other hand, our lives can appear to be a mess that we can never sort out. But if we surrender the pieces to the Lord, He can make something beautiful. 
For the quilting, I used the Northern Star pantograph. 
It's not often that I have a pantograph with the same name as the quilt pattern. 
This backing fabric has been in my stash for several years, just waiting for the right quilt. 

Wednesday, 1 January 2025

2024 Crafting and Reading Year in Review

An Alchemy of Stitches - Block 1

For the first time, at least to my knowledge, I completed 21 quilts in one year. Granted, a lot of those were just snuggle quilts (about 45" x 55"), but they were completed quilts, nonetheless.  And the one I completed yesterday was actually a double bed size. I also arrived at 125 on my Lifetime List of Quilts Made. 
So, here's the list of quilts made in 2024, with links to those I have already blogged about: 

  1. Patches of Blue
  2. La Petite Princesse
  3. Family (Cindy's)
  4. It's a Grey Area
  5. Panda Paradise
  6. Tales of Ireland
  7. Splendour
  8. Fanshawe 40
  9. Run the Race
  10. Family (Therese's)
  11. Northern Star
  12. Christmas Sweaters
  13. Somewhere in Outer Space
  14. Family (Nancy's)
  15. Family (Janet's)
  16. To All the Cats I've Loved Before
  17. Eccentric
  18. Christmas in Bloom
  19. Dancing Snowflakes
  20. I'll Fly Away
  21. Where Thistles Bloom
In addition, I also:
My Good Reads reading goal was 12 books, and I read 14, many of which were not light reading. They were: 
  1. God Spoke Tibetan
  2. Mama and Boris
  3. Being Mortal
  4. The Survivor
  5. Valinda, Our Daughter
  6. Nala's World
  7. Seabiscuit
  8. Old Town in the Green Groves
  9. The Bravest Voices
  10. The Last Rescue
  11. The Parasitic Mind
  12. Social Justice Fallacies (audio book)
  13. Sisters in Arms
  14. Grave Error
I figure this is also a good time to do an update on my tortoise projects. 
Tortoise Project numbers 1 (Variegated Moss Stitch Throw), 3 (The Poet Shawl) and 4 (latch hook wallhanging) are completed. I try to keep 4 projects on the list of Tortoise Projects, so I add a new one as one is completed. 
Tortoise Project #2 is the Shannon afghan. 
I have completed 26 of 48 squares and am working on the 27th. 
Tortoise Project #5 is the needlepoint wallhanging. 
I've made a little progress on this project since the last time I posted about it, but not much.
Tortoise Project #6 is the English Paper Piecing quilt block, Brackman 3806.5. 
I have over half of the block finished!
Tortoise Project #7 is A Blanket of Roses crocheted afghan. 
I have 7 of 24 hexagons completed, and am working on the 8th. 
Now, about the picture at the top of this post. After I said goodbye to my precious Mystery, my niece Julie gave me a crocheting/knitting magazine. 
As I looked through it, I found this knit along (KAL) that intrigued me and I figured that I could use my odd skeins of Red Heart Unforgettable yarn to make it. The designs are modelled after quilt blocks, and the picture is of the first "block". Not that I needed to add another project, but it is using up some of my abundant yarn stash. And I get to learn new stitches. 
Those "bumps" in the squares on the upper left and lower right of the block are called the Cluster 3 stitch, and it's the worst knitting stitch I have encountered (so far). Let me tell you about it. I start out with all of my stitches on the left needle, knit a few onto my right hand needle, then knit a few onto my cable needle - okay so far, because I do similar stuff when I'm knitting cables - challenging to juggle the three needles, but manageable. But then, I have to take my yarn and wrap it around the stitches on the cable needle 6 times, all without dropping any of my stitches off any of the needles. It's a good thing that I also crochet, because I had to use a crochet hook a couple of times to pick up dropped stitches, and still ended up missing one loop... Then I pulled out my "helping hands" - point protectors for my knitting needles that are shaped like hands (the only ones Walmart had available). The pattern doesn't mention that you need point protectors, but I don't see how I could do this stitch without them. So, it went something like this: Knit the required stitches onto the right needle from the left, put point protector on the end of the right needle. Put point protector on one end of cable needle and knit 3 stitches from the left needle onto the cable needle. Put one point protector on the other (left) end of the cable needle and one on the end of the left needle. Wrap yarn around stitches on cable needle 6 times. Remove point protectors from right end of cable needle and end of right needle. Slide cluster onto right needle. Set cable needle aside, remove point protector from left hand needle and knit 3 more stitches from left needle to right needle. Repeat. 
Maybe knitters who are more coordinated than I am can manage to do it without the point protectors (I watched a YouTube video where the instructor didn't use them), but I don't intend to keep picking up dropped stitches. In one YouTube video, the knitter did it by moving the 3 stitches in the cluster back and forth between left and right needles as she wrapped, so didn't use a third needle at all, but she only did 2 or 3 wraps, not 6. 
I can hardly wait to see what other adventures this KAL has in store...
Just figured I'd also share this.
Recently, someone shared this picture in one of the Facebook quilting groups, of which I am a member. 
She asked if anyone knew what the name of the quilt pattern was. So, I perused Brackman's Encyclopedia and found the Grandmother's Pride block. And then I decided I was going to try it. Not content with just the block, I made one strip of the sashing as well. At one time, one of my goals had been to replicate the quilts from both Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons. But other projects and priorities intervened. Now that I've found out how fiddly the sashing on this quilt is, I'm not sure I would want to do a whole quilt with it. Nevertheless, I think my rendition more closely replicated the original than the other suggestions. 
I still want to make Mary Ellen's quilt from The Waltons.
In conclusion, I'd like to share this reading from a devotional book called Our High Calling by Ellen White.